011 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



027 273 616 9 



Hollinfirer Corn. 



HN 79 
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Copy 2 



A SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAM 
FOR THE STATE OF FLORIDA 

PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF 

HIS EXCELLENCY, SIDNEY J. CATTS, GOVERNOR 
AND THE CABINET OF STATE OFFICERS 



By HASTINGS H. HART, LL.D. 

OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 
AND 

CLARENCE L. STONAKER 

OF THE STATE CHARITIES AID AND PRISON 
REFORM ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY 




RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 

130 EAST 22ND STREET 

NEW YORK CITY 

PRICE 10 CENTS JANUARY, 1918 

Monograph 



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PREFATORY NOTE 

At the request of the Governor and the State Council of De- 
fense of West Virginia a study was made in July, 19 17, covering 
the social institutions and agencies of West Virginia, and there 
was prepared a Suggested Program for the Executive State Council 
of Defense. 

The West Virginia Program having been brought to the atten- 
tion of His Excellency, Governor Sidney J. Catts, an invitation 
was extended by the Governor, and later by the Governor's 
Cabinet, of the State of Florida, to make a similar study and re- 
port. The conditions in the State of Florida differ from those in 
West Virginia in that Florida has had no legislation for a State 
Council of Defense; but the Governor, without legislation, des- 
ignated a State Board of Food Conservation and authorized 
it to perform some of the duties which would naturally fall to 
a State Council of Defense. This Board has no appropriation, 
and its activities have necessarily been limited. 

Under these circumstances it seemed wise to let this study cover 
not only the war activities of the State, but the social agencies 
and activities in general. We have, therefore, outlined the social 
work of the State and have offered such suggestions as seemed 
pertinent. It is not expected that all of these suggestions can be 
adopted, but it is hoped that they may contribute to the social 
development of the State. 

Either of the two reports can be obtained from the Russell Sage 
Foundation, 130 East 22d Street, New York City. 



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Hew York Evening Post 
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1918 






THE NEW "PREPAREDNESS." 

A wave of modesty is sweeping over 
our States. Forgetting their ancient 
habit of claiming superiority over their 
sister commonwealths in every depart- 
ment of human endeavor, they are sud- 
denly struck with a sense of their short- 
comings. Maryland invites experts to 
come down and see what is the matter 
with her educational arrangements. 
West Virginia calls upon the Russell 
Sage Foundation to look into her social 
institutions. And Florida's Governor, 
alarmed at the lead obtained by West 
Virginia, telegraphs the investigators 
to hurry along and report the worst at 
the earliest possible moment. . For this 
eagerness to know ourselves the war is 
partly responsible. The feeling is that 
perhaps we are not doing all that we 
(might be doing. A trained outsider 
\may be able to show us unrecognized re- 
ources and to tell us how to make more 
ffective use of those we appreciate, 
and thus enable us to contribute our 
full share to the nation's vast demands. 
But neither those calling for the inves- 
tigation nor the investigators limit 
their view to the availability of the 
State's agencies for the present emer- 
gency. They plan for the long future, 
taking advantage of a time of general 
reconsideration to recast old institutions 
and to provide for new ones in accord- 
ance with sound principles and the 
highest motives. 

The purpose of the investigators is 
not merely to find fault or even to sug- 
gest improvements. It is also to bring 
to the public attention_the success that 
the State is having in its undertakings. 
; This part of their work serves a double 
purpose. It is evidence of the good 
i faith, the sympathetic spirit, of the in- 
vestigators, and it heartens the people 
Ifor the larger tasks before them. No 
one can tackle a new job with hopeful- 
ness if he feels that he has failed at all 
the old ones. Thus Messrs. Hastings 
H. Hart, of the Russell Sage Founda- 
tion, and Clarence L. Stonaker, of the 
Charities Aid and Prison Reform Asso- 



ciation of JNew jersey, who made the 
jWest Virginia survey, put in the fore- 
front of their study of "the resources, 
agencies, and institutions of the State 
of Florida available for social welfare" 
a summary of the way in which the 
State has responded to the demands 
'made upon it by the war: 

We found that the State of Florida had 
| made an excellent beginning- in the effort 
' to meet the direct obligations created by 
the great war. She has filled her quota 
of soldiers, sailors, and marines with men 
of like patriotism and efficiency with 
those from other States. She is taking- 
measures to protect the morals and the 
health of the soldiers to be gathered in 
| the training camp at Jacksonville and of 
| the sailors and marines at Pehsacola and 
j Tampa. ^V nen local Mayors and Sheriffs 
showed a disinclination to "clean up" in 
i the vicinity of the camp and naval sta- 
: tions, the Governor responded promptly 
| and sharply to the appeal of the Secre- 
j tary of War for cooperation in this vital 

and indispensable work. 

i 
i 

But, of course, the value of a survey 
lies in its honesty as well as in its in- 
telligence, and while the Florida inves- 
tigators are uniformly courteous in 
their attitude, they do not hesitate to 
declare what they find. They say, for 
(instance, that the State has been slow 
| in developing its social institutions. The 
'oldest one, the Hospital for Insane, 
; dates only from 1877. The Industrial 
• School for Boys was opened about twen- 
! ty years later, and the Industrial School 
!for Girls last year. But Florida may 
| now avail herself of the experi- 
ence of other States. And as she 
| cannot longer rely upon her fortu- 
nate combination of mild climate, 
abundant food at lew prices, and sim- 
ple habits of living, it is time that she 
was up and doing. At one point, the 
Southern view of the negro has resulted 
peculiarly. There is neither hospital 
nor sanatorium for negro insane. Ne- 
gro patients do the farm work at the 
ate Hospital. To the question wheth- 
vould not be better to have a sep- 
I arate institution for negroes, as is the 
case in a number of Southern States, 
| the reply was that "it would be very 



unfortunate to make this change be- 
cause the negro patients were so useful, 
doing work that white patients would 
be unwilling to do"! But the most in- 
teresting consequence of this system 
remains to be told: 

The result of this policy is that the 
negro patients have outdoor work on 
the farms, which they enjoy, and which 
greatly improves their health and their 
prospects for recovery, while the white 
patients spend their time in airing courts 
j — dusty, sandy, hot, and cheerless — be- 
hind a brick wall which prevents them 
from seeing the beautiful country which 
surrounds them, and from getting any 
benefit from the wind. 

But why not at least remove the wall? 
Well, it is an interesting relic of the 
early history of the State. The inves- 
tigators' comment is that the entrance 
gate ought by all means to be preserv- 
ed, but that there is no reason for keep- 
ing the wall and using it to deprive 
hundreds of suffering people of the 
"cheap blessings of sunlight, fresh air, 
and a view of the beautiful landscape 
which surrounds the hospital." 

A survey is for the benefit of other 
States than the one surveyed, and it will ■ 
interest those outside of Florida to note 
that she spends $183 for every thousand 
inhabitants upon the health of her citi- 
zens. Only Pennsylvania does better, 
spending $256. Florida also has a 
prison farm that aroused the enthusi- 
asm of the investigators and led them 
to record that in this matter she has 
set a pace that no other State has yet 
reached. The most encouraging fea- 
ture of this work is that it has been ac- 
complished in the short period covered 
by the war. In a word, her visitors feel 
that Florida has an excellent founda- 
tion upon which to build. Their parting 
counsel to her is that she follow the ex- 
ample of North and South Carolina, 
Virginia, and Tennessee by establishing 
an unpaid Advisory Board of Charities 
and Public Welfare with "a competent 
paid secretary." "Let it be absolutely 
divorced from politics." Divorcing in- 
stitutions from politics is a task that 
concerns other States than Florida. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Invitation 5 

Institutions and agencies studied 5 

War activities 5 

Cleaning up camps and naval stations 6 

Care of soldiers and their families 6 

Care of tuberculous soldiers 7 

Care of convalescent soldiers 7 

Soldiers' Homes inadvisable 7 

Destructive effects of war to be prevented 7 

Food conservation 8 

Education in patriotism 9 

Social agencies and activities 10 

Dates of establishment of state institutions 1 1 

Florida's opportunity 1 1 

Expenditures for state institutions 12 

Administration of boards and institutions 13 

Public Health service 14 

Scope and expenditures of State Board of Health 15 

Hospital provision 16 

Guard the State Board of Health 17 

Care of the insane 18 

The prison system 21 

The convict lease system 21 

The State Prison Farm 22 

Prison labor for highways and reclamation of land 24 

County jails 25 

Care of delinquent children 25 

Care of defective children 30 

Care of dependent children 32 

The Florida Children's Home Society 33 

Infant mortality 34 

Child labor 34 

Recreation 35 

Public education 36 

Care of the poor 43 

An advisory state board needed 45 



RECOMMENDATIONS 



PAGE 



Provision for tubercular and convalescent soldiers, to be available 

for civilians after the war. 7 
A new hospital for insane soldiers, to be available for civilians after the 

war. 7, 21 

Cooperation for recreation of soldiers. 8 

A campaign for education in patriotism. 9 

A State Board of Control for charitable and correctional institutions. 14 

With Reference to the State Board of Health 
That the Board organize inspection of tenement houses and rural 

homes. 16 

That the Board develop a hospital program for the State. 17 
That the Board be guarded against the danger of the political spoils 

system. 17 
With Reference to the Hospital for Insane 

Removal of the wall. 19 

Farm work and a park for white patients. 19 

A hospital and a sanatorium for Negro patients. 20 

A colony for the feeble-minded and epileptics. 20 

A cottage for insane farm laborers. 20 

A separate kitchen for each department. 20 

A home for nurses. 20 

With Reference to the Prison System 

Speedy abolition of the convict lease system. 22 

A hospital and tuberculosis sanitarium at the state farm. 23, 24 

Use of convicts to clear state lands for the market. 24 

Additional improvements of methods at the State Farm. 24 

Wages for prisoners. 25 

The passage of a vagrancy law. 25 

Juvenile courts for rural counties with probation officers paid per diem. 26 

With Reference to the Boys' Industrial School 

A schoolhouse on the bungalow plan. 27 

Improved methods of vocational training. 27 

Practical instruction for farming. 28 

Negro employees for Negro departments. 29 

Appointment of parole officers. 29 

With Reference to the Care of Defective Children 

A separate department for feeble-minded inmates of the Girls' Indus- 
trial School. 30 
Institutional provision for feeble-minded on the colony plan. 31 

With Reference to the Care of Dependent Children 

Generous support of Florida Children's Home Society and orphanages. 33 
A state agency for supervision of societies, institutions, and children 

placed in homes. 34 

Study of legislation adopted for assistance of widowed mothers. 34 

Securing adequate infant mortality statistics. 34 

Legislation respecting child labor and recreation. 35 

With Reference to Education 

Improved teacher training. 39, 40 

More efficient vocational training. 39 

Compulsory school attendance law and attendance officers. 41 

Improvement of schools for deaf and blind. 42, 43 

Application of Red Cross methods to public charity. 44 

Establishment of a State Board of Charities. 44 



A Social Welfare Program for the State of 

Florida 

By Hastings H. Hart and Clarence L. Stonaker 

New York, November 13, 1917. 
To the Governor and Cabinet of the State of Florida: 
Gentlemen : 

In accordance with the telegraphic invitation of Governor Sid- 
ney J. Catts, dated September 15, 191 7, supplemented by the 
invitation of the Cabinet by vote of September 21, 191 7, we have 
made a study of the resources, agencies, and institutions of the 
State of Florida available for social welfare and we submit here- 
with a Social Welfare Program for the State of Florida, based upon 
this study. 

We have considered these resources and activities, first, with 
reference to their availability to enable the State of Florida to do 
her part toward the successful prosecution of the Great War in 
which we are now engaged; second, with reference to their effi- 
ciency to promote the general social welfare of the community as 
a whole. 

In the prosecution of this study we conferred first with Gover- 
nor Catts, then with the Governor and Cabinet together; then 
with the individual members of the Cabinet and other state offi- 
cials, and later with numerous intelligent private citizens who are 
interested in public affairs. We visited together the Florida State 
College for Women and the new State Prison Farm at Raiford. 
Dr. Hart visited the Florida Hospital for the Insane and the 
Florida Industrial School for Boys. Mr. Stonaker visited the 
University of Florida at Gainesville, the Florida Agricultural and 
Mechanical College for Negroes at Tallahassee, the Florida State 
College for Deaf and Blind at St. Augustine, the Florida Indus- 
trial School for Girls at Ocala, the ward for crippled children in 
the County Hospital at Ocala, the County Prison Farm, the 
County Almshouse, and the County Hospital at or near Jackson- 
ville. 

WAR ACTIVITIES 

We found that the State of Florida had made an excellent 
beginning in the effort to meet the direct obligations created by 
the Great War. She has filled her quota of soldiers, sailors, and 
marines with men of like patriotism and efficiency with those from 

5 



other states. She is taking measures to protect the morals and 
the health of the soldiers to be gathered in the training camp at 
Jacksonville and of the sailors and marines at Pensacola and 
Tampa. When local mayors and sheriffs showed a disinclination 
to "clean up" in the vicinity of the camp and naval stations, the 
Governor responded promptly and sharply to the appeal of the 
Secretary of War for co-operation in this vital and indispensable 
work. 

Care of Soldiers and Their Families 

The American Red Cross is developing the work of caring for 
the families of soldiers in all of the states of the Union in a wise 
and practical manner. They are making use of the wisest trained 
workers in the philanthropic organizations to plan the work and 
instruct the volunteers who are offering their services to the Red 
Cross for "home service." They are recognizing the importance 
of "case work," i. e., the careful study of each family in order to 
ascertain just what they need and to act intelligently in their sub- 
sequent treatment. The result of this policy will doubtless be an 
increase in the efficiency of all of the philanthropic work of the 
State in the future. 

The Red Cross Chapters, throughout the State, are organizing, 
under the direction of the American Red Cross, for active service 
in the care of soldiers' families. They are receiving efficient co- 
operation from the Associated Charities and other philanthropic 
agencies. The Florida Children's Home Society, a responsible 
and well equipped agency, stands ready to co-operate with them 
in those cases (probably few in number) where children of soldiers 
will need provision separate from their mothers. 

It remains to make provision for the needs of the returned sol- 
dier and this provision should be made without delay. Great 
suffering occurred in European countries in the early months of 
the war for the lack of such provision. 

It will probably be unnecessary to provide orthopedic hospitals 
and vocational schools for crippled soldiers for the reason that it 
is understood that the General Government proposes to estab- 
lish 35 orthopedic hospitals with vocational schools attached, at 
convenient points in different states. This plan will involve some 
hardship because of the separation of returned soldiers from their 
families and friends, but it is probably the best plan, all things 
considered. 



It will be necessary to provide State sanatoria for tuberculous 
soldiers. These sanatoria should be so located and constructed 
as to be available for other tuberculous patients after the war. 

It will be necessary to make provision for the temporary care 
of soldiers who are convalescent from wounds, sickness, or brain 
shock, and also for the treatment of insane soldiers. We would 
suggest that the needs of these three classes can be met by estab- 
lishing a state hospital in the eastern part of the State, on the 
cottage plan. This hospital should be planned with reference to 
its use after the war as a general hospital for the insane. In this 
way every dollar invested will become permanently available for 
the use of the State, without loss. 

We advise against the establishment of a State Soldiers' Home 
like those which were established by northern and southern states 
after the Civil War. It is probable that the General Government 
will make all necessary provision of this kind. It is a serious 
question whether the establishment of soldiers' homes is the best 
way of providing for dependent soldiers. The inmates of soldiers' 
homes are apt to become dyspeptic, discontented, and unhappy 
in consequence of over-feeding and lack of congenial occupation. 

Florida will have little difficulty in providing for the able- 
bodied soldier upon his return. The reclaiming of waste land and 
the development of agriculture along the new lines which are be- 
ing opened up by the State Agricultural Department will offer 
opportunity not only to the returned veterans of Florida but to 
many from other states. 

Destructive Effects to be Prevented 
Thus far we have spoken of the direct work to be done for the 
soldier and his family. It is of equal importance to protect the 
community, and especially its children, from the destructive ef- 
fects of war. The experience of the European countries and the 
colonies of Great Britain has been that the morals, the health, and 
even the life of those who remain at home is imperiled. This is 
already true even in our own country. The high prices of milk 
and other necessary foods have resulted in a marked increase of 
the infant mortality rate in some of the great cities. In Canada 
the very liberality of the Government in paying high wages to 
soldiers and providing a liberal "separation allowance" for their 
wives has in many cases tended to promote extravagance and 



other demoralizing practices, so that it has been necessary to 
organize friendly visitors and other supervising agencies to pre- 
vent these evils. 

All intelligent observers recognize the danger to young girls 
and to young soldiers arising from the glamour of the uniform 
and the romance of the soldier who is giving his all for his country. 
Parents display astonishing blindness to these dangers, and it be- 
comes necessary for the good men and women of the community, 
the churches, and the religious organizations to find ways, on the 
one hand, to meet the legitimate needs of the soldier for whole- 
some recreation and, on the other hand, to protect our young girls 
from the dangers arising from their natural generous impulses. 

The President, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the 
Navy are alive to the danger and the responsibility and are pro- 
moting the work of the Commissions on Training Camp Activi- 
ties; but it is necessary for the local organizations of women's 
clubs, Young Women's Christian Associations, and churches to 
co-operate with these commissions in guarding young girls and in 
providing suitable places where mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, 
visiting their friends in camp, can be safely housed and can have 
a suitable meeting place. It is necessary also to instruct mothers 
and young girls as to the dangers to which they are exposed, and 
it is necessary to instruct the young soldiers as to the obligations 
of manhood and chivalry toward innocent young womanhood. 

Food Conservation 

Splendid progress has been made under the leadership of the 
State Agricultural Department in increasing the food production 
of the state. This has been done by the execution of great drain- 
age projects, by the reclamation of waste land, by the spread of 
diversified farming, and by improved methods of distribution. It 
has been promoted by the efficient extension work of the State 
University and the College for Women, organizing corn clubs, pig 
clubs, and canning clubs, and by practical instruction of young 
women and girls in domestic science. It has been promoted by 
the new development in horticulture which is overcoming the dis- 
couragement caused by disastrous failures in orange culture. It 
has been promoted by the great improvement in the quality of 
the live stock of the state and the establishment by the last Legis- 
lature of the State Sanitary Live Stock Board. This movement 



goes hand in hand with the increase of diversified farming and 
truck gardening. It has been promoted also by the extraordinary 
demonstration which is being made at the new State Prison Farm 
at Raiford by Superintendent Purvis, who, in three years' time, 
has converted a wilderness into a fertile farm producing abundant 
diversified crops and live stock, and has multiplied the value of 
3,000 acres of land five-fold. 

The Governor has appointed a Food Conservation Committee 
which is co-operating actively with the official representative of 
Mr. Hoover and with the voluntary Women's Council of Defense. 

In the absence of legislation authorizing a State Council of 
Defense, the Governor has requested the Food Conservation 
Committee to act as a Council of Defense as far as practicable; 
but in the absence of any appropriation, or any legal authority, 
it is impossible for this Committee to make any considerable 
enlargement of its work. It is to be regretted that the State 
has not a State Council of Defense with a proper appropriation. 

Education in Patriotism 

We quote the following from the " Program " which we recently 
prepared for the West Virginia State Council of Defense: 

" Propaganda for Education in Patriotism 

"A. Patriotic Meetings 

"Undertake a propaganda to promote public meetings in the 
interest of patriotism in all parts of the state. 

"Appoint a strong committee, including a leading member of 
each of the political parties, a clergyman, a university professor, 
and a Chautauqua promoter. 

"Let this committee secure the co-operation of the Bureau of 
Patriotism through Education of the National Security League, 
the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the Feder- 
ation of Women's Clubs, and the chairman of the State party 
committees, the newspapers, and other organizations.* 

"Organize teams, consisting of three men and one woman, to 

visit the more important cities and hold patriotic meetings; such 

teams should include at least one speaker to be furnished by the 

National Bureau of Patriotism through Education. Organize also 

county teams to visit the smaller communities. 

* Handbooks and pamphlets can be obtained from the first of these organi- 
zations, 19 W. 44th St.; from the second, 105 E. 22nd St., New York City. 



10 

"Subjects for Discussion 

"Let these meetings emphasize: 

11 1. Loyalty to our Government and our Flag. 

"2. The fact that the United States has been forced into this 
war against its will, 'to make the world safe for democracy,' to 
protect the innocent and to defend the weak. 

"3. The duty of every citizen to enlist for the war, and to find 
a way to serve his country, whether in the field, in civil service, in 
the hospital, or in the more faithful performance of the tasks of 
production, education, social service, or other duties which he may 
find at home. 

"4. The duty of protecting the health, education, and morals 
of our children, thus avoiding the mistake of sacrificing the future 
strength of the Nation for a small immediate advantage. 

"5. The importance of conserving our national resources, ma- 
terial and human, with the most rigid economy in order to win the 
fight for democracy. 

"B. Enlistment of the Clergy 

11 1. Ask the clergymen of the state to join with the committee 
of the State Council of Defense in an effort to induce every clergy- 
man, of whatever denomination, to preach a patriotic sermon at 
least once a month, inculcating the principles above mentioned 
and the religious foundation of patriotism. 

"2. Urge the clergy to stimulate patriotism by the singing of 
'America' or other patriotic hymns at every public service, by the 
display of the American flag, and where practicable, the flag of one 
or more of the allies, and by inspiring them to take an active share 
in all forms of endeavor tending to promote social well-being." 

SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES 
Thus far we have dealt with those activities which bear directly 
upon the efficiency of the State in the war. We are now to con- 
sider those social agencies and activities which are not directly 
connected with the war. It must be borne in mind, however, that 
almost all of these activities — public health, education, child wel- 
fare, good roads, prison administration, the labor problem — are 
more or less related to the successful prosecution of the war. The 
truth is that the war activities of the State and its social activities 
are necessarily related because all of them have to do with the 
efficiency of the people. The war inevitably increases the num- 



11 

ber of dependents and delinquents, and successful social work 
tends constantly to turn back these dependents and delinquents 
into the ranks of productive citizens. 

While Florida has a history dating back nearly 400 years, it is 
still a young community in the development of its social institu- 
tions. The Hospital for Insane, which is the oldest State institu- 
tion, was opened in 1877; the College for the Deaf and Blind 
was opened in 1885; the Industrial School for Boys was opened 
about 1897; and the Industrial School for Girls in 1917. The 
East Florida Seminary, organized in 1842, and the State Agricul- 
tural College, organized in 1884, were consolidated in 1905 to 
form the State University at Gainesville. The Agricultural and 
Mechanical College for Negroes was organized in 1887 and the 
State College for Women was opened in 1905. The State Board 
of Health was organized in 1888. 

Florida's Opportunity 

Florida has been slow in developing her social institutions. 
This fact has been a disadvantage in the past but it is now an 
advantage, for the reason that the State has the opportunity, in 
developing its social work, to avail itself of the experience of other 
states and countries which have spent millions of dollars in experi- 
ments whose results are available for its guidance. It is only 
necessary to go and observe their successes or their failures. 

Already this advantage is apparent in the modern and progres- 
sive work of the State University, the State College for Women, 
the new State Farm, and the State Board of Health. The Hos- 
pital for the Insane, the Industrial School for Boys, and the Indus- 
trial School for Girls are profiting by the same influences. 

The unique work which is being accomplished under the direc- 
tion of the Agricultural Department by Superintendent Purvis 
at the State Farm, the extension work of the State University and 
the State College for Women, and the ideal sanatorium for tuber- 
culous patients at the Hospital for the Insane are illustrations of 
what Florida may accomplish in developing her new hospital for 
the insane, her coming institution for the feeble-minded, and her 
plan of extension work for adequate teacher-training. 

The drainage program which has been in progress for many 
years and is now approaching its completion will add millions of 
acres to the fertile lands of the State. 



12 

With a mild climate and an abundant supply of food at low 
prices, with a people of simple habits, and a moderate scale of 
living, Florida has not heretofore felt the pressure of her social 
needs ; but with the advanced cost of living, with the rapid in- 
crease of the dependent, delinquent and defective classes which 
come with a more complex society and will be greatly increased 
by the war, Florida can no longer postpone developing her social 
activities, and must act speedily if she is not to be overwhel med 
by the advancing tide of pauperism, vice, and crime. 



EXPENDITURES FOR FLORIDA STATE 
INSTITUTIONS 

The following summary of the expenditures of the State of 
Florida for social purposes in 1 91 6 is made up from the annual 
report of the State Comptroller: 





Current 
Expenses 


Building, 
etc. 


Totals 


State University 

State College for Women 

State Agricultural and Mechanical 

College for Negroes 
State College for the Deaf and Blind 
Rural School Inspectors 


153,747 
77,788 

9,58i 

31,856 

6,212 


$19,261 
2,712 

5,789 
22,440 


$73,008 
80,500 

15,370 

54,296 

6,212 


Total, Education 


$179,184 


$50,202 


$229,386 


State Prison 

Industrial School for Boys 
Industrial School for Girls 
State Hospital for Insane 


$167,500 
9,291 

239,254 


$100,000 
13,340 

178 

8,233 


$267,500 

22,631 

178 

247,487 


Totals 


$416,045 


$121,751 


$537,796 


State Agricultural Department 
State Board of Health 


$48,216 
151,863 




$48,216 
151,863 


Totals 


$200,079 




$200,079 


Grand Totals 


$795,308 


$171,953 


$967,261 



13 



Administration of Boards and Institutions 

The State Board of Health consists of three members appointed 
by the Governor. They appoint a secretary who is the executive 
officer. 

The State Live Stock Commission, formerly a department of 
the State Board of Health, was made an independent Board by 
the Legislature of 191 7. 

The Board of Commissioners of State Institutions consists of 
the Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Comptroller, 
Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture, all elective officers. They administer all 
state institutions except "schools of higher grades." The Consti- 
tution provides that they "shall have supervision of all matters 
connected with such institutions in such manner as may be pro- 
vided by law." 

The State Board of Education consists of the Governor, Secre- 
tary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer, and the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. They "have the manage- 
ment and investment of all state school funds under such regula- 
tion as may be prescribed by law and such supervision of schools 
of higher grade as the law shall provide." They administer the 
State University, the College for Women, the Agricultural and 
Mechanical College for Negroes, and the State College for the 
Deaf and Blind. 

In recent years, the direct management of these four schools 
was placed, by legislative act, in charge of a Board of Control 
reporting to the State Board of Education. 

The Constitution provides that the Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture shall have supervision of the State Prison, in addition to the 
supervision exercised by the Board of Commissioners of State 
Institutions. 

The plan of administration of the state correctional and charit- 
able institutions by a board made up of executive state officers is 
very undesirable. Each one of these officers has abundant em- 
ployment in the work of his own department and it is simply im- 
possible for them to give the attention to the details of seven state 
institutions which is necessary for efficient administration. They 
are compelled to entrust to institution superintendents duties 
which properly belong to the board of trustees. This plan was 



14 

followed for many years in the State of Nebraska with unsatis- 
factory results, for the reasons above stated. 

It would be much better if a State Board of Control were estab- 
lished to administer these on the plan which prevails in the four 
educational institutions. 



Public Health Service 
Florida has made generous provision for public health service 
by the creation of its State Board of Health, supported by a tax 
of one-half mill on each dollar of taxable property in the State. 

EXPENDITURES OF STATE BOARDS OF HEALTH 







Amount 
Expended 


Expended for 


State 


Population 


Each 1,000 
Inhabitants 


Florida 


905,000 


$165,523 


$183 


Vermont 


364,000 


42,000 


118 


Massachusetts 


3,748,000 


218,000 


58 


New York 


10,367,000 


544,700 


53 


New Jersey 


2,981,000 


140,000 


47 


Rhode Island 


620,000 


27,600 


44 


Kentucky 


2,387,000 


105,000 


44 


Delaware 


214,300 


8,500 


40 


Minnesota 


2,296,000 


90,602 


40 


Wisconsin 


2,514,000 


65,388 


26 


Maine 


775,000 


18,434 


24 


Ohio 


4,181,000 


114,727 


22 


Oklahoma 


2,246,000 


50,500 


22 


Connecticut 


1,255,000 


26,790 


21 


Colorado 


975,000 


19,980 


20 


Virginia 


2,203,000 


59,400 


19 


Iowa 


2,225,000 


32,800 


15 


Alabama 


2,384,000 


25,000 


11 


Michigan 


3,075,000 


27,000 


9 


Missouri 


3,420,000 


23,523 


7 


Total 20 States 


49,135,000 


$1,805,467 


$37 


Pennsylvania 


8,591,000 


$2,200,000 


$256 



No state in the Union expect the State of Pennsylvania makes 
so large an appropriation as far as we can learn in proportion to 
its population. We sent out an inquiry to the different state 
boards of health on this point and received 25 replies, the results 



15 

of which appear in the foregoing table, which covers about one- 
half of the population of the United States. Omitting the State 
of Pennsylvania, it appears that these states, which contain 
49,135,000 inhabitants, expended last year for the work of their 
state boards of health $1,805,000, an average of $37 for each 
1,000 inhabitants. Florida leads the list with an expenditure of 
$183 for each 1,000 inhabitants. 

For several years past, a considerable proportion of the annual 
income of the State Board of Health has been applied to building 
an elaborate headquarters at the City of Jacksonville which con- 
tains the offices and laboratories of the different departments of 
the Board. The completion of these buildings and the transfer 
of the live stock work release funds which will now become avail- 
able for current health work. The expenditures of the State 
Board of Health amounted last year to $165,523. 

The scope and significance of the work of the State Board of 
Health are indicated by the distribution of its expenses as follows : 

Administration $18,184 

Bureau of Communicable Diseases 76,785 

Bureau of Engineering (and Water Laboratory) 2,328 

Bureau of Education: 

Division of Exhibits $17,434 

Division of Publications 6,214 

23,648 



Bureau of Child Welfare: 

Crippled Children $6,397 

Medical Inspection of School Children 4,793 



11,190 

Bureau of Vital Statistics 12,492 

Bureau of Veterinary Science 20,896 

Total Expenses $165,523 

The Bureau of Communicable Diseases has done a large work 
in the prevention of infantile paralysis, smallpox, typhoid fever, 
rabies, hookworm, and yellow fever. An illustration of its effi- 
ciency is the report of cases of smallpox, which is as follows : 



Year 


1912 


1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


Reported Cases 


i,7i3 


1,166 


583 


236 


90 



For a number of years the Department maintained four isola- 
tion hospitals at different points, but two have been discontinued 
and the Board recommended in 1916 that the other two be dis- 
continued because of the great diminution of contagious diseases. 

The Bureau of Communicable Diseases has maintained since 



16 

1 9^4 a corps of 13 district nurses or, more properly, district in- 
structors, who were at first employed exclusively in the anti- 
tuberculosis campaign, but their work was later extended in its 
scope to include all lines of public health activities. A system of 
visiting tuberculous patients was established, and the Board 
stated that 63 per cent of the patients visited were reported to 
be following instructions to the best of their ability. 

The Bureau of Engineering and Water Laboratory has worked 
to improve the water supply by inspection and by the examina- 
tion of samples of water. 

The Bureau of Education prepared in 1915 a traveling exhibit 
which has been carried through the state and has accomplished 
a remarkable work in stimulating popular interest in health 
measures. 

The legislature of 191 5 passed an act designed to provide for 
the medical inspection, under the supervision of the State Board 
of Health, of all school children, but the results proved that this 
desirable work could not be accomplished even by the generous 
resources of the State Board of Health. The law provided for the 
payment of a fee of ten cents for each case examined, but this fee 
would barely cover expenses without any compensation for the 
services of the examiners. The present Board of Health is en- 
deavoring to accomplish the purposes of the act with the co- 
operation of local physicians and boards of health. The effort to 
secure universal examination of school children is most commend- 
able but, as is pointed out in the report of the State Board of 
Health, it would require at least $100,000 per year to do the work 
efficiently. 

Florida maintains a department for the correction of insanitary 
conditions in hotels, lodging houses, and restaurants. We would 
suggest that the State Board of Health establish a system of in- 
spection and correction of defects and abuses in the tenement 
houses of the cities and in the unsanitary houses occupied by 
families in rural communities. Housing conditions in villages and 
on farms are often quite as hazardous to life and health as those 
that are found in the cities. 

Hospital Provision 

As already stated, the State has maintained four hospitals for 
contagious diseases, two of which have been closed. The Legis- 



17 

lature of 191 7 authorized the several counties to establish and 
maintain tuberculosis hospitals, to levy a tax, and establish a 
county board on petition of 25 per cent of the qualified voters. 

Hospitals for contagious diseases are reported in Duval County 
and Escambia County, and county hospitals in Duval and Marion 
Counties. Four private hospitals are reported at Tampa, three 
at Jacksonville, one at St. Augustine, and one at Orlando, making 
a total of perhaps 200 beds. The United States Government 
maintains five hospitals for soldiers or sailors. The Order of Odd 
Fellows maintains a National Sanitarium for tubercular patients, 
and the Florida East Coast Railroad has a hospital for its employes. 

There may be other hospitals in the State but these are all of 
which we were able to learn. 

We would suggest that the State Board of Health should im- 
mediately undertake to develop a hospital program for the State, 
either by the establishment of three or more general state hospi- 
tals on the plan which is pursued in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 
and West Virginia, or by the development of county hospitals in 
at least 10 of the leading counties of the State which can receive 
patients from adjacent counties, or by stimulating the organiza- 
tion of private hospitals. This latter plan, however, is difficult to 
apply in rural communities. Probably a combination of the three 
plans might be found practicable. 

The war is likely to create an increased demand for hospital 
facilities. Many returned soldiers will need hospital care. As 
we have indicated, it will be necessary also to provide for the 
treatment of returned soldiers who are suffering from nervous 
depression, brain shock, or temporary insanity. It will be a 
great hardship if such men, returning from the war, find them- 
selves without any suitable provision. 

Guard the State Board of Health 

The amount raised by taxation to support the State Board of 
Health is one-half as much as the school tax. This generous sum, 
if wisely used, will pay rich dividends in the development of 
strong, robust, and useful citizens and the elimination of burdens 
which are created by bad health conditions. We feel constrained, 
however, to caution those in authority carefully to guard this 
great agency of the State against the possibility of infection with 
the destructive virus of the political spoils system. It deals with 



18 

the life and death of little children and men and women. These 
concerns are too sacred to be imperiled by partisan or personal 
interests of any one. It would be a sad day for Florida if ever the 
State Board of Health should become a political machine and its 
officers and agents should be selected for any other consideration 
than their qualifications for their important and responsible 
duties. It would be far better to transfer three-fourths of the 
income of the State Board of Health to the school fund than it 
would to allow it to be thus wasted and misused. 

The duty of guarding the State Board of Health rests with the 
Governor who appoints its members. 

Care of the Insane 

The Florida Hospital for the Insane is fairly well located at 
Chattahoochee on the site of Fort Mount Vernon, a military post. 
The original buildings, most of which are still in use, were erected 
1832-1835. 

In 1866 Fort Mount Vernon was turned over to the State and 
used as a state prison for ten years, until 1876, when it was con- 
verted into a hospital for the insane. 

The officers' quarters of the old fort are still in use as a residence 
for the superintendent and his assistants, and as an administra- 
tion building. Several of the original barracks which were occu- 
pied by soldiers and afterward by prisoners are used as wards 
for hospital patients; some of them with very little modification. 

The old fort was surrounded by a brick wall about 10 feet high, 
which is still standing, enclosing a space about 1,000 feet square. 
This enclosure is entered through a gateway which is an interest- 
ing relic of the old fort. 

Separate buildings for colored patients were erected just out- 
side the wall. The main kitchen serves both the white patients 
and the colored patients. The white patients have a large dining 
room adjoining the kitchen. Food for the colored patients is car- 
ried from 500 to 700 feet through the open air on cars. 

A new and handsome hospital building for medical treatment 
of white patients has been erected. The building is attractive and 
convenient, but unfortunately the materials and workmanship 
are inferior, and the building already shows signs of deterioration. 
An admirable sanatorium has recently been built for 28 tubercu- 
lous white patients. The sanatorium is ideal in its building and 



19 

equipment. A beautiful garden has been established in front of 
the sanatorium. 

There is neither hospital nor sanatorium for the Negro patients. 
A ward in one of the buildings is devoted to sick patients, and the 
tuberculous patients are found in the wards with other patients. 

The hospital is located on a farm of 1,800 acres, much of which 
is suitable for cultivation, but only about 75 acres are actually 
under cultivation. The farm work is done entirely by the Negro 
patients. Inquiry was made whether it would not be better to 
have a separate institution for Negro patients as is done in a num- 
ber of other southern states. The reply was that it would be very 
unfortunate to make this change because the Negro patients were 
so useful, doing work that white patients would be unwilling to do. 

The result of this policy is that the Negro patients have out- 
door work on the farm which they enjoy and which greatly im- 
proves their health and their prospects for recovery, while the 
white patients spend their time in airing courts — dusty, sandy, 
hot, and cheerless — behind a brick wall which prevents them from 
seeing the beautiful country which surrounds them, and from 
getting any benefit from the wind. In answer to the question why 
the high brick wall was not removed the reply was that the wall 
was an interesting relic of the early history of the State. The in- 
teresting part of the wall is the entrance gate, which ought by all 
means to be preserved, but the excuse is certainly insufficient as 
a reason for depriving hundreds of poor suffering people of the 
cheap blessings of sunlight, fresh air, and a view of the beautiful 
landscape which surrounds the hospital. There are groves, fields, 
streams, and ravines close at hand which could be easily converted 
into a beautiful park with gardens and walks, by the labor of the 
patients, which would immediately become a healing agency. 
The department for colored patients is located outside of the 
brick wall, but for some inscrutable reason a high stockade was 
built around the exercise yard of the colored patients, cutting 
them off also from the fresh air and the beautiful landscape. 

It has long since been demonstrated that enclosed exercise 
yards are unnecessary even for unruly patients, if there is a suffi- 
cient force of reliable nurses. If, however, it was deemed neces- 
sary to continue the ancient and unnecessary plan of exercise 
yards, they could easily be enclosed with wire fencing which would 
be equally secure without cutting off the wind and the view. 



20 

It would be much better for the white patients if they had as- 
signed to them a portion of the farm and were required to work 
it, according to their reasonable ability. In some private sana- 
toriums where patients pay a large fee it is part of the treatment 
to require them to do outdoor work. 

The State ought, as a therapeutic measure, to build a hospital 
for the sick Negroes and a sanatorium for tuberculous Negroes. 
The retention of tuberculous patients among those who are free 
from the disease tends to spread it through the community and is 
contrary to the universal teaching of competent experts. 

The hospital at Chattahoochee ought, on no account, to be 
further enlarged; on the contrary, the population ought to be 
reduced by building a colony for the feeble-minded and epileptics, 
and transferring the patients of both of these classes who are now 
at Chattahoochee. Only those who are familiar with the care of the 
insane can realize the amount of suffering to the patients which is 
caused by overcrowding. It produces discomfort, confusion, and 
quarreling. It greatly increases the labor and the responsibility 
of the nurses who, in their turn, become irritable and difficult. 
It interferes with proper ventilation and proper feeding. It over- 
taxes the storage facilities and the cooking facilities. There should 
be no delay in relieving this unfortunate condition. 

The overcrowding can be relieved in part by the erection of a 
cheap cottage for the 60 negroes employed on the farm. Such a 
cottage could be built of wood, with good floors and good plumb- 
ing, at a cost not exceeding $200 per bed, and would relieve the 
overcrowding to that extent. 

We understand that the kitchen is about to be reconstructed, 
an improvement which is absolutely necessary, because the build- 
ing is worn out and cannot be kept sanitary, while the cooking 
apparatus is also worn out and is entirely inadequate. 

We would suggest that each department should have its own 
kitchen and dining-room — employes' department, department for 
white patients, department for colored patients, hospital, and the 
sanatorium for tuberculous patients. The reduction in the size 
of the kitchens would not increase the expense but would rather 
tend to diminish it, and would make it much easier to get the 
food to the patients in a palatable condition. 

We would suggest that a nurses' home be built. There is no 
more trying or taxing work than the care of insane patients, and 



21 

it is a serious hardship for nurses who perform this arduous task 
to be obliged to sleep in the wards in close proximity to the pa- 
tients, and to have no provision for natural and wholesome living. 

The most satisfactory plan would be to have a series of small 
cottages, accommodating 20 or 25 persons each, but if this is not 
deemed practicable, there might be one building for men and 
another for women. 

A new hospital for the insane should be begun immediately in 
the eastern part of the State. At the present time patients come 
to Chattahoochee from distances of 500 or 600 miles, involving 
suffering for sick people, heavy traveling expenses for the public, 
and serious hardship to relatives of patients who can visit them 
only by a large expenditure of time and money. 

A new hospital on the colony plan can be provided at less ex- 
pense than will be involved in making additions to the plant at 
Tallahassee. The retiring superintendent and the present super- 
intendent agree in recommending the establishment of the new 
hospital. The State will undoubtedly need to make provision for 
the treatment of returning soldiers. The present hospital, in its 
crowded condition and with its ancient equipment, can not pro- 
vide suitably for such patients. 



THE PRISON SYSTEM 

It appears that the State of Florida is unique in locating the 
management of the prison system in the Department of Agricul- 
ture. It is also interesting to note that only recently has the 
Department of Agriculture undertaken to utilize the labor force 
of its criminals in custody in agricultural pursuits. The dark 
pages in the history of the prison system of Florida when men 
and even women were generally broken in health and brutally 
treated in the iniquitous system of leasing in turpentine forests 
are now closed, and the promise of the leaders of thought in 
Florida that the entire leasing system will in a few years be abol- 
ished is one that will bring satisfaction to all with humanitarian 
impulses. 

It is not enough to say now that the treatment of the convicts 
in the turpentine forests is so much better than in past years. 
Present officials frankly admit that even at its best this use of 
prisoners, though closely inspected and supervised, means the 



22 

breaking down of health in a few years. The statement that no 
prisoner can last more than ten years under the system is suffi- 
cient utterly to condemn the method. No state and no people have 
the right to exploit convicts for private gain, more especially when 
that exploitation is in a form of labor that offers no training for 
a better life upon release, and which is a form of labor that breaks 
down the health of the most vigorous. It stands to reason that 
when private contractors are required to pay a relatively high 
per diem wage to the State for convicts and to provide for their 
maintenance in the camps which under close inspection are sup- 
posed now to be upon a much better standard than in past years, 
the task set daily for the convict must be one that will yield a 
profit to the contractor. 

It is the severity of the labor required to fulfill the daily task, 
the long hours, the weary miles to be traveled, the heavy burden 
to be carried, the disagreeable nature of the material to be gath- 
ered, the fear of punishment for work not completed, that breaks 
the spirit and ruins the health of every convict who enters upon 
that routine. No man comes back from the turpentine camps in 
good working condition. He must be doctored up just as an over- 
worked horse or mule would be. The turpentine trade should se- 
cure its labor from the labor market and not be allowed to exploit 
the state prisoners to their ultimate harm. The State of Florida 
can not hope to gain revenue through the wrecking of human be- 
ings through overwork and by breaking down their health and 
spirits under this particular form of labor under the leasing sys- 
tem. The temper of an enlightened sentiment of the people is 
against this iniquitous thing. 

Bradford Farm 

In contrast, however, we witnessed with amazement the re- 
markable work accomplished in the past three years in the devel- 
opments at the great Prison Farm at Raiford. While the so-called 
healthy and strong Negro convicts are mostly leased to turpentine 
forests, the white prisoners and the discards from the leasing 
force of colored convicts, along with the colored women prisoners 
and the very few white women have been housed within stockades 
upon the great farm at Raiford. The results accomplished in the 
three years in the clearing of cypress swamps, the removal of 
stumps until thousands of acres are ready for cultivation of crops, 



23 

the draining of great tracts by well constructed canals and ditches, 
the building of roadways and fences, the construction of build- 
ings, including a beautiful home for the superintendent, and now 
the great yield of food crops bringing in a direct revenue to the 
State, almost overpower one who for the first time goes over this 
great property. 

November 27, 191 3, Captain Purvis began work in the devel- 
opment of the Prison Farm at Raiford, with a force consisting of 
five men, four mules, and two wagons. The Farm consisted of 
17,500 acres of land purchased at the rate of about $5 per acre. 
Part of it was in lakes, part in swamps, and nearly all of it was 
woodland. 

The work of development was not fairly inaugurated until the 
summer of 1914. In a little more than three years' time 3,100 
acres have been cleared for cultivation, and 1,500 acres have been 
stumped but not yet cleared. An extensive drainage system has 
been developed, the ditches and canals being well constructed. 
Nearly 3000 acres are in crops. While the farm is intended to 
be primarily a sugar farm, and we saw luxuriant fields of sugar 
cane, the crops are diversified, including an abundant supply of 
staple vegetables. A small orchard has been planted and is al- 
ready beginning to bear. We saw about 900 acres of velvet beans 
in one field. The value of the 3000 acres already cleared has in- 
creased from $5 per acre to at least $25 or $30. 

Wooden buildings have been erected by the labor of the con- 
victs, with a cash outlay of about $100,000. These buildings in- 
clude dormitories and living rooms for 700 prisoners, a hospital, 
a commodious residence for the superintendent, neat cottages for 
married officers and dormitories for unmarried officers, shops, 
store-houses, stables, and so forth. The dormitories have good 
floors and good plumbing. They will serve for a number of years 
until permanent buildings of re-enforced concrete can be provided. 

The dormitories for white and colored prisoners alike have good 
iron bedsteads, with comfortable mattresses, blankets, sheets, 
pillow cases, and night shirts, making it possible to maintain clean 
and sanitary conditions. 

The hospital accommodations for men and women are quite 
inadequate; and the building which is allotted to tuberculosis 
patients is dark, unsanitary, and entirely unfit for its purposes. 

The next improvement should be an adequate hospital for sick 



24 

patients and a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients similar to the 
sanatorium at the State Hospital for Insane. 

To the State Department and its officials who conceived of this 
great undertaking and directed its progress, and to that wonder- 
ful executive manager, Superintendent Purvis, we extend our 
compliments and hearty congratulations. They have set a pace 
which no other state has yet reached. It is, however, but a be- 
ginning. The outlook is bright with promise. 

It is but another step to the creation of a state land depart- 
ment for the leasing or sale of lands cleared, drained, and put into 
condition by the prison department to be readily cultivated ; and 
the purchase by the State of more tracts of swamp and timber 
lands to be reclaimed by prisoners of the State. Private enter- 
prise has not been able to accomplish this work. Land booms 
have been many in the past history of Florida and the results in 
obtaining new settlers have been meagre. It takes so many years 
of prison labor to clear the raw land that most land seekers have 
gone to other states where conditions are not so severe. With 
the lands cleared by prison labor and then offered to the settler 
by the state department upon reasonable terms, the question of 
settling the unoccupied lands of Florida would seem to be solved. 

Of the sanitary condition of the Bradford Farm structures, of 
its present medical service to the prisoners, of its incidental teach- 
ing of vocational activities, we have only words of praise. We 
would urge the introduction of some degree of instruction, both 
scholastic and vocational, at the farm; the abolishment of striped 
clothing; the establishment of a parole system; the payment of 
wages to prisoners earning good records ; and the grading of pris- 
oners as to age and criminal intent so that the reformatory prin- 
ciple may be worked out through the several series of road camps 
and state farms. It is not great institutional buildings and centers 
that we urge, but diversified industrial training in graded camps 
and farms with ready means of transfer of prisoners as they show 
a disposition to improve and advance. There should be a com- 
plete separation of the prisoners carrying infectious diseases and 
their isolation in one camp where effective treatment may be 
given, and no prisoner should be released therefrom until all 
danger of spreading the infectious disease is eliminated. 

Immediate attention to the needs of the tuberculous prisoner 
should be given by the state authorities. The present structure 



25 

at Bradford Farm is wholly unfit and should be promptly torn 
down or put to some other use. 

The County Jails 
From our limited observations of the county prison problems, 
we have no special criticism to offer. The county jails are mainly 
used as places of detention awaiting court procedures; they are 
under state inspection as to sanitation and there are many new 
structures in the State. Almost every county uses its short term 
prisoners upon road work, and the method of housing in roadside 
camps is also under state inspection. The era of chain gangs is 
happily over in Florida, and the next step will be the abandon- 
ment of the striped suit and possibly the payment of a small wage 
for good service rendered. The suggestion is offered that a strong 
vagrancy law be enacted to the end that able-bodied men shall 
seek and hold steady jobs or be compelled to work for the county. 
In addition to county road building should come a system of 
county farm development, and upon such farms owned by the 
counties there may be erected the separate buildings needed for 
the support and care of the sick and dependent. A county colony 
where the labor is done by the county prisoners, and where a 
general hospital, a tuberculosis sanatorium, and an infirmary for 
the dependent aged is located, will afford that degree and measure 
of public service which the present age demands. 

Duval County Prison Farm 

The county farm project of Duval County, like the Prison Farm 
at Raiford, is a most interesting development, and is to be com- 
mended. If the future planning of the county officials of Duval 
County in relation to its county institutions continue upon a 
similar broad and progressive plan, the citizens of that county 
will be fortunate. 



CHILD WELFARE 

Care of Delinquent Children 

Florida has made commendable progress in the care of delin- 
quent children. An efficient juvenile court has been established 
in Jacksonville and a limited amount of juvenile court work is 
being done in five or six other counties. Probation officers have 



26 

been appointed in these counties to protect the interests of chil- 
dren brought into court, and to supervise children paroled from 
the Florida Industrial School for Boys and the Florida Industrial 
School for Girls. 

It is very desirable that juvenile court methods shall be intro- 
duced and probation officers shall be appointed for every county 
in the State. This can be accomplished with very little expense 
by the passage of a law providing that children's cases shall be 
tried by a judge of a court of record, entirely separate and apart 
from the criminal trial of adults, and providing that the proceed- 
ings in children's cases shall not be criminal trials but shall be 
chancery proceedings in which the child shall be regarded, not as 
a criminal, but as a ward of the State; to be dealt with not for 
vindictive punishment but for discipline, education, and training 
for good citizenship. 

In those counties where the number of children's cases is not 
sufficient to require the entire time of a probation officer the ex- 
pense can be minimized by authorizing the judge to appoint pro- 
bation officers who shall be compensated at the rate of $3 per day 
for the time actually served by order of the court in dealing with 
children's cases. The compensation of these probation officers 
can be further regulated by providing that they shall not draw 
pay for more than 60 days, or 100 days, in any one year, and that 
they shall not be allowed more than $100 or $150 for traveling 
expenses in the course of the year. This plan of appointing and 
compensating county agents or probation officers has been suc- 
cessfully pursued for many years in the state of Michigan. 

The Florida Industrial School at Marianna has made great 
improvements in the past three or four years. It has two excellent 
and well-planned brick cottages for 50 white boys each. These 
cottages are modern in every respect. The living rooms are well 
furnished, with electric light reflected from the ceiling. The dor- 
mitories have windows on three sides, affording perfect ventila- 
tion. The plumbing and bathing facilities are good. The base- 
ments contain play rooms for stormy weather. 

The dining-room and kitchen for white boys is a good illustra- 
tion of inexpensive construction. The one-story building is of 
wood, with a good cement floor. The windows are screened 
against flies. The food is good, well-cooked, well-served, and suf- 
ficient in quantity and variety. 



27 

The administration building is well built but it is badly planned, 
inconvenient, and contains considerable waste space. There is 
no suitable assembly room, and the school rooms are in an old 
building, badly lighted, unsanitary, and unfit for use. We would 
suggest that a one-story school house be built of wood with con- 
crete floors, similar to the domestic building which contains the 
kitchen and dining-room. Such a building can be constructed at 
a very moderate cost, and if the material and workmanship are 
good, and if it is kept in repair, it will last for many years. The 
building should contain four rooms and when additional school 
rooms are needed a second building can be constructed. 

The school work can be materially improved but it will be neces- 
sary to provide salaries which will attract competent teachers. 
Teachers of unusual patience, skill, and devotion are necessary in 
order to develop the ignorant and unruly boys who are sent to 
the Industrial School. The present salaries are $30 for a woman 
teacher, and $35 for a man, with board. 

Thus far industrial training has been only imperfectly devel- 
oped. The shops are poorly equipped. There are a blacksmith 
shop and a wood shop. The blacksmith and the carpenter are 
ordinary workmen, not trained people, but they are able to give 
the boys a good deal of practical instruction in these trades. The 
assistant superintendent is the head farmer. The farm work is 
done for the most part by colored boys, but there is no systematic 
instruction in the science of farming. There is a brickyard in 
which good brick is manufactured by the boys, but this work does 
not give any industrial training. There is a class of eight or ten 
boys in stenography and bookkeeping, a valuable line of instruc- 
tion. 

The School has 600 acres, of which 450 acres are under cultiva- 
tion. The land is reported to be of good quality, better than that 
of the neighboring farms. The superintendent believes the farm 
to be profitable but as yet the accounts are not so kept as to show 
the actual results of the farm except as to the quantity of the prod- 
ucts. The superintendent has just sold two carloads of velvet 
beans as fodder, bringing in about $400 in cash. It is very desir- 
able that the accounts should be so kept as to show the actual 
financial results. The farm should be charged with the salary of 
the assistant superintendent as head farmer, with any other hired 
help on the farm, together with the cost of seeds, fertilizer, and 



28 

the upkeep of machinery, stock, fences, and farm buildings; and 
should be credited with all farm products sold and all products 
consumed by the School. An accurate annual inventory should 
be taken. 

It is very difficult to give practical instruction in farming where 
the work is organized on a large scale because, in order to make 
such farming profitable it is necessary to use the boys as farm 
laborers, leaving little, if any, time for instruction in the science 
of farming. We would suggest that the Board of Commissioners 
of State Institutions consider the plan which is adopted at the 
New York State Agricultural and Industrial School at Industry, 
and by the Thorn Hill School of Allegheny County near Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania. At these two institutions the land is di- 
vided up into small farms, similar to those which would be culti- 
vated by an ordinary tenant farmer. On each farm is a small 
cottage, built of wood, in which is a family of 20 boys with a house 
father and a house mother. Each farm has a team, a couple of 
cows, some pigs, a calf, some chickens, and a house dog. And the 
farm is cultivated like an ordinary small farm but in a thoroughly 
scientific manner. By this plan the boys learn farming as it is 
carried on in actual experience. 

The plan above suggested is especially adapted to the develop- 
ment of truck farming. The boys of the school are already cul- 
tivating individual gardens, but we see no reason why they might 
not have family gardens. This plan could be introduced with the 
present equipment. A tract of land could be set apart for a 
group of 15 or 20 boys from one of the cottages, and the boys 
could go back and forth to their work. 

The 240 Negro boys occupy a separate building about a quarter 
of a mile from the cottages of the white boys. This building is 
old and inconveniently arranged. It is difficult to keep it in sani- 
tary condition. The dormitories are much crowded and are sup- 
plied with double-deck beds, which are undesirable not only be- 
cause the boys are too close together for good health, but because 
they interfere with proper supervision and give opportunity for 
immoral practices. 

The Negro boys are under the care of white, male employes. 
Their general condition and discipline are much less satisfactory 
than that of the white boys. One colored woman is employed at 
the colored boys' building as a kind of house mother. We see no 



29 

reason why the colored boys should not be as well trained and 
disciplined as the white boys. The possibility of such results has 
been demonstrated at the Prison Farm at Raiford, where the 
Negro convicts are as orderly, cleanly, and industrious as the 
whites. 

We would suggest that the Board of Commissioners of State 
Institutions consider the plan which is followed in the Laurel 
Industrial School at Hanover, Virginia, and the Alabama Reform 
School for Juvenile Negro Law Breakers at Mt. Meigs; namely, 
to put the Negro boys entirely under the charge of Negro house 
fathers, house mothers, and teachers. This plan results in a sav- 
ing of salaries and it is claimed that, with a careful selection of 
employes, the results are very satisfactory. The work of the 
Negro department would, of course, continue to be directed by 
the superintendent of the Industrial School. 

We learned that no parole officer is employed by the School 
and that boys sent out from the School receive only such super- 
vision as can be given by probation officers in those counties 
which have them. The State of Florida is expending from $200 
to $500 for the training and development of each of these boys 
during his stay at the School. The object of this training is to 
qualify the boys to lead an upright and honorable life after they 
are released. If the boy is sent back into the same surroundings 
from which he originally came, with no one to watch over him 
or to advise him, the probability is that he will fall into his former 
ways. The experience of other states has demonstrated that the 
employment of competent parole officers by the State to watch 
over and befriend the boys after their release is an economical 
plan because many boys who would otherwise relapse are de- 
veloped into good citizens. 

The Florida Industrial School for Girls at Ocala was opened 
March 15, 191 7. It already contains 23 girls. Mrs. Florence J. 
Range has been appointed as superintendent. The School is 
temporarily housed in a large residence in the outskirts of the city 
of Ocala but it is to be permanently located at Marion Farms in 
a group of buildings of which the first is nearing completion. 

The selection of the site is to be commended. It has the ad- 
vantage of much preliminary work in land clearing, tree planting, 
road building, and fencing. It has sufficient space and oppor- 
tunity for vocational activities for the girls. On this site it will 



30 

be possible to develop the school along the lines of such institu- 
tions as the Minnesota Home School for Girls, Sleighton Farm 
for Girls in Pennsylvania, the two schools for white and colored 
girls in Virginia, and the new Training School for Girls in Texas. 

The Florida Industrial School for Girls will inevitably have the 
same experience as all the reformatories for girls, namely, that a 
considerable portion of the girls committed to the school will prove 
to be feeble-minded and will be incapable of receiving the same 
kind of training and discipline as normal girls. It is generally 
agreed that the most desirable plan is to establish colonies for 
girls who belong to the "defective-delinquent" class entirely sepa- 
rate from the industrial school ; but Florida has no institution as 
yet for defective children. Under these circumstances we would 
suggest that the Board of Commissioners of State Institutions 
adopt the plan which has been followed in the corresponding 
institutions of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, 
namely, to set apart certain cottages for the care of girls who 
prove to be feeble-minded, to establish for them a milder disci- 
pline and less elaborate schooling, and to train them for such use- 
ful and helpful work as may be within their capacity. 

Experience proves that many feeble-minded delinquent girls 
can not be made capable of self-support and self-direction, and 
that if they are turned loose in society, they become a source of 
corruption, they become mothers of feeble-minded children, and 
add greatly to the burdens of the state. It is now generally agreed 
that the most economical plan is to secure legislation whereby 
the mental condition of these girls can be duly established by 
court proceedings and they can be permanently protected by in- 
stitutional care in case adequate protection can not be provided 
for them in their own homes. 

Care of Defective Children 

It is generally recognized throughout the United States that 
the most acute and pressing social problem at the present time 
is the problem of the feeble-minded, and especially feeble-minded 
girls of child-bearing age. The number of feeble-minded in the 
community is not yet definitely ascertained, but it is generally 
agreed that there are at least as many feeble-minded as there are 
insane. Florida is already taking care of 1600 insane patients, 
and doubtless has at least that many feeble-minded. 



31 

It is only in recent years that the menace of feeble-mindedness 
has been clearly recognized, but within the past ten years investi- 
gations have been made which prove that a very large proportion 
of crimes are committed by persons who are really feeble-minded, 
and that probably 20 to 25 per cent of the population of the 
prisons and reformatories of the United States are defective. 

The feeble-minded furnish at least one-half the prostitutes 
and a large proportion of the paupers and ne'er-do-wells of the 
country. 

The studies which have been made show that feeble-mindedness 
is a hereditary disease. Probably at least three-fourths of the 
feeble-minded have an ancestry of feeble-mindedness, insanity, or 
alcoholism. 

It is also recognized that the chief preventive of feeble-minded- 
ness is the care and segregation of feeble-minded girls during the 
child-bearing period. If Florida has 1600 feeble-minded people, 
probably 400 of them are women of child-bearing age. 

Florida has many feeble-minded adults at the State Prison 
Farm and in the State Insane Hospital. There is quite a number 
of feeble-minded boys at the State Industrial School for Boys, 
and there are a few feeble-minded children who lead a miserable 
existence in the State Hospital for the Insane. 

The rapid multiplication of feeble-minded people through he- 
redity is causing alarm in those states where this subject has been 
studied. The State of Florida should take immediate steps to 
protect these unfortunate children, not only as a matter of hu- 
manity toward this helpless and innocent class, but also as a 
matter of protection to the community. 

Those feeble-minded children who have good homes can usually 
be properly sheltered and cared for in them, but a large propor- 
tion of them are homeless, or worse than homeless, and must of 
necessity look to the Mother State for protection. 

Florida ought to make immediate institutional provision for at 
least 500 of this class, following the good examples which have 
recently been set by the states of Virginia and North Carolina. 

The most approved method of providing for the feeble-minded 
is by the colony plan, under which young children receive such 
education as their natural capacity will admit, while the older 
ones are placed on farms where most of them can be trained to 
perform useful work, and can lead natural and happy lives while 



32 

they can be so protected as to prevent them from multiplying 
their kind. 

We should advise the State of Florida to adopt simple and in- 
expensive plans of construction, such as are now being followed 
in the states of Indiana, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, and to 
avoid the extravagant plans of building which have prevailed in 
many states. To this end those who are made responsible for 
building such an institution should visit the best organized insti- 
tutions which are to be found in the states above named. 

The State has already started the care of crippled children at 
Ocala, under the control of the State Board of Health. This 
humane work will enable hundreds of children who would other- 
wise be helpless and dependent, and would lead miserable and un- 
happy lives, to become self-supporting, normal citizens. The care 
of crippled children is of necessity expensive because it involves 
a long period of maintenance, under the care of trained nurses, 
directed by skillful orthopedic surgeons. These children need a 
liberal diet of milk and cream, butter, eggs, soup, and so forth, 
and they are able to perform but little service. The per capita 
cost of $i per day for the care of crippled children is not exces- 
sive, but the returns in the restoration of physical power and the 
prevention of suffering abundantly justify the undertaking. 

Care of Dependent Children 

There are no public institutions, either state, county, or city, 
in the State of Florida for the care of dependent children, and 
there is no State agency which is responsible for the care of such 
children. 

The Florida Children's Home Society, with headquarters at 
Jacksonville, is a well organized, active, and efficient Society, 
with a responsible and competent Board of Directors. It is sup- 
ported entirely by private contributions, and its income last year 
was about $40,000. 

The superintendent of the Society, Mr. Marcus C. Fagg, had 
a broad experience in dealing with dependent, neglected, and de- 
fective children before coming to Florida. He is a well trained 
and efficient man, and has a staff of intelligent and devoted people. 

The Society follows the plan of placing children in selected 
family homes. It was not practicable to inspect the placing-out 
work of the Society, or to visit its placed-out children. From 



33 

what we could learn, we believe that this work is conscientiously 
and faithfully done. 

When the Society receives an application in behalf of a child, 
the first step is to make a careful "case study" of its family and 
personal history. This study is undertaken first to ascertain 
whether it is necessary to separate the child from its mother. 
If it is a young baby, the mother is persuaded to nurse it and care 
for it for at least a year if possible, and efforts are made to have 
the father and grandparents "do their bit" if possible. If it is 
an older child and there is a good mother, the effort is made to 
secure such aid from the public treasury or otherwise as will 
enable her to preserve her own home and care suitably for her 
own children without the necessity of leaving them to roam the 
streets while she works in an office or a factory. 

The next step is to secure a thorough physical and medical 
examination, more thorough than a life insurance examination, in 
order to avoid danger of infecting other children and in order to 
secure such medical, surgical, or dental treatment, diet and train- 
ing as may be necessary to put them in the best possible physical 
condition, so that they may be fit to go into good family homes. 

The Society maintains a good receiving home in the city of 
Jacksonville where its wards receive such temporary care and 
treatment pending their placement in family homes. 

The Society employs a staff of trained agents to make prelimi- 
nary case studies, to find family homes, to place children in them, 
and to watch over them after they are placed, in order to make 
sure that they are not neglected or ill treated. 

The Census Report of 1910 showed only seven orphan asylums, 
with a total population of 193 children, a very small number for 
a great state like Florida. The Florida Baptist Orphanage at 
Arcadia, the largest one, contained only 65 children. 

Florida is very fortunate in having so few orphanages. Those 
which exist should receive generous support and should be 
equipped so as to do the very best quality of work for the com- 
paratively small number of children which need their sheltering 
care. 

If the State gives proper support and supervision to the work 
of the Florida Children's Home Society, it will not be necessary to 
build more orphanages. There are enough already to take care of 
the orphanage work for the next twenty-five years; but the plan 



34 

of placing children in family homes is an exceedingly responsible 
one. The Children's Home Society undertakes to determine, 
first, whether parents shall be allowed to bring up their own chil- 
dren, or whether they shall be taken away from them and given 
to strangers. It then undertakes to select foster parents, and to 
determine the whole future interests of the child. 

It is rapidly coming to be recognized that the great Mother 
State should extend her fostering care to all homeless or neglected 
children, and should see that societies, institutions, or individuals 
who undertake to care for them discharge faithfully the obliga- 
tions which they have voluntarily assumed. 

The State, however, should not leave it to any institution to 
perform this great and responsible work without supervision. 
There should be established a state agency; either a board of 
children's guardians, such as are found in the District of Columbia 
and the State of New Jersey, or a state superintendent of neglected 
children; or there should be a state board of charities, with a child 
welfare department, as in Virginia, Ohio, and Massachusetts. 

All societies and institutions which undertake to care for chil- 
dren should be required to have a certificate from the state super- 
vising agency, and this certificate should be renewed from year 
to year. All children placed in family homes should be reported 
to the state agency and should be visited and watched over by 
it. This plan is now pursued in many states, and it affords the 
greatest possible protection to these unfortunate children. It is, 
at the same time, a protection to the placing-out agencies to have 
their work thus overlooked by responsible representatives of the 
State. 

As yet the State of Florida has made no provision for mothers' 
pensions or "mothers' assistance" for the benefit of widowed or 
abandoned mothers who are without the means to support their 
children. We would recommend that steps be taken to study the 
legislation which has been adopted for the assistance of widowed 
mothers in many of the states of the Union. Information on this 
subject can be obtained from the Children's Bureau in the De- 
partment of Labor at Washington, D. C. 

Infant Mortality 

Notwithstanding the efficiency of the State Board of Health, 
there are as yet no reliable statistics on infant mortality, and in 



35 

the annual report of the State Board of Health for 1916 (p. 20) 
we read as follows: "The Bureau of Vital Statistics has made 
great progress since the reorganizing of system in accordance with 
statutory law. ... It has taken time and much patience be- 
cause of the delay occasioned in correspondence with those se- 
lected as local registrars and sub-registrars, to tabulate births and 
deaths occurring in their several communities. The collection of 
statistics of any kind is a slow process of determining facts for 
resultant instructive study, and the collection of vital statistics 
is no exception to the general rule for work of this character. 
Therefore, when it is learned that the organization of this Bureau 
had to be started from the ground floor, I think what has already 
been accomplished is deserving of commendation. 

"It is believed, however, that the time is not distant when 
Florida will be authorized and entitled to be admitted to the 
registration area of the United States, and that the repeated as- 
sertions that the healthfulness of the State at all seasons of the 
year is excellent, will be substantiated and maintained by statis- 
tical figures." 

Child Labor 

The child labor problem is less acute in Florida than in some 
of the other southern states because of the absence of the great 
cotton mills and other manufactories, but children have been 
employed to a considerable extent in tobacco factories and can- 
neries. 

The popular impression has prevailed that children who live 
on farms do not need the protection of child labor laws because 
farm work is a healthy outdoor activity, and farmers are not 
likely to abuse the children under their care. The fact is often 
overlooked that farm work involves long hours, and that multi- 
tudes of children on farms are kept out of school a large part of 
the year in order that they may assist in farm labor. Surely the 
children in the rural districts are entitled to the same beneficent 
protection from the Mother State as those who live in cities or 
factory villages. 

Recreation 

So far as we could learn, there are no public playgrounds in 
Florida, and there is no efficient supervision of moving picture 
shows or other forms of recreation. If the State deems it neces- 



36 

sary to supervise hotels and restaurants, ought it not to under- 
take also to protect the morals and the health of children in their 
recreation? 

PUBLIC EDUCATION 

The progress of the State of Florida in the development of her 
system of education is indicated in the following facts taken from 
the reports of the United States Commissioner of Education for 
1916: 

WEALTH AND SCHOOL EXPENDITURE* 





Expended for public schools on each $100 of 




true value of all real and personal property 




1880 


1890 


1900 


1904 




Cents 


Cents 


Cents 


Cents 


United States 


17.9 


21.6 


24.3 


25-5 


North Central Division 


21.8 


24.9 


25.8 


26.4 


South Atlantic Division 


13.6 


17.1 


19.4 


20.0 


Florida 


9.6 


13.3 


21.5 


21.9f 


Georgia 


7.8 


14.0 


21.2 


19.2 


Alabama 


11.7 


H.3 


11.8 


13.0 



PUBLIC SCHOOL 


EXPENSE PER INHABITANT J 






Expended per capita of total population 




1870 


1880 


1890 


1900 


1910 


1914 


United States 


$1-75 


$1.56 


$2.24 


$2.84 


$4.64 


$5.62 


North Central Division 


2.14 


2.03 


2.81 


3-27 


5-52 


6.77 


South Atlantic Division 


.63 


.68 


•99 


1.24 


2.20 


2.79 


Florida 


.66 


.43 


1.32 


1.45 


2.36 


3.27 


Georgia 


•24 


•3i 


.65 


.89 


1.70 


1.98 


Alabama 


•36 


.40 


•59 


•50 


1.36 


1.97 



While the expenditures per inhabitant in the State of Florida 
are still less than those of the United States at large and the North 

* Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1916, Volume 2, pp. 37 and 38. 

t The expenditures of Florida in proportion to the value of property in- 
creased about 33 per cent from 1902 to 191 2, so that the present rate is probably 
about 30 cents on each $100 of real and personal property. 

X Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1916, Volume 2, p. 32. 



37 



Central Division, they are increasing more rapidly than did the 
expenditures of other states, as will be seen by the following 
statement showing the increase of public school expenditures per 
inhabitant : 

Progress of Expense per Inhabitant * 



1900 



United States 
North Central States 

Florida 



1870 


1880 


1890 


$1.75 

2.14 

(1890) 

$1.32 


$1.56 
2.03 

(1900) 

$1.45 


$2.24 

2.81 

(1910) 

$2.36 



$2.84 

3-27 
(i9H) 
$3.27 



EXPENSE PER PUPIL f 





Annual expense per capita of 
average attendance 




For salaries 
only 


Total 
expense 


United States 

North Central Division 

South Atlantic Division 

Florida 

Georgia 

Alabama 


$22.76 
25.16 

12-35 
12.99 
10.36 
11. 71 


$39-04 
44-15 
18.91 
21.88 
13.70 
15-32 



SALARIES OF TEACHERS* 





Average monthly salary 
of teachers 


Average annual 
salary of all teachers 




Men 


Women 


All 


United States 

North Central Division 

South Atlantic Division 

Florida 

Georgia 

Alabama 


$79-94 
79-97 
65.78 
68.16 

63.62 
63.83 


$62.57 
61.47 

44-15 
48.94 

38.27 
50.57 


$66.07 
64.91 
49.16 
53.17 
43-68 
56.09 


$524.60 

53745 
328.88 
327.00 
30576 
343-41 



* Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1916, Volume 2, p. 32. 
t Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1916, Volume 2, p. 35. 
J Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1916, Volume 2, p. 30. 



38 



bCriUOL ATTEJNDAJNCL* 


No. attending daily 




for each ioo enrolled 




in 1013-14 


United States 


74.2 


North Central Division 


78.4 


South Atlantic Division 


67.2 


Florida 


71.4 


Georgia 


65-3 


Alabama 


61.8 


ILLITERACY f 


Percentage of total 




population (10 years 




and over) 


United States 


7-7 


North Central Division 


3-2 


South Atlantic Division 


16.0 


Florida 


13.8 


Georgia 


20.7 


Alabama 


22.9 



Public School Education of White and Colored Children 

The United States Bureau of Education has just issued an 
elaborate report on Negro education from which we have com- 
piled a comparison of public school work in Florida with that of 
the entire South and the individual states of Georgia, Alabama, 
and Mississippi. 



Teachers 


Teachers' salaries per 
child 


Percentage of illiter- 
acy 10 years and over 












White 


Colored 


White 


Colored 


Sixteen Southern States, 










D. C, and Missouri 
Florida 


$10.32 
11.50 


$2.89 
2.64 


7-7 
5.5 


33-3 
25.5 


Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi 


9-58 

9.41 

10.60 


1.76 

1.78 
2.26 


7-8 
9-9 

5-2 


36.5 
40.1 

35-6 



This comparison is decidedly favorable to the State of Florida 
as compared with the other southern states, but it is still much 
short of what Florida will accomplish if she continues to progress. 
The report above referred to says with reference to the State of 
Florida : 

"While the United States Census indicates hopeful progress 
in the decrease of illiteracy and in the improvement of health con- 

* Report United States Commissioner of Education, 19 16, Volume 2, p. 27. 
f Same report, p. 23. 



39 

ditions, illiterates are still 25.5 per cent of the colored population 
10 years old and over, and 17.8 per cent of the colored children 
10 to 14 years of age, and the death rate is very high."* 

The report calls attention to the fact that the State appro- 
priated $8,500 to supplement the income of the Agricultural and 
Mechanical School for Negroes, largely maintained by the Fed- 
eral Government, and that $77,000 were expended in private 
schools for the education of Negroes. 

The report adds as follows : 

"The most urgent need of the colored schools in Florida is 
trained teachers. The supply now depends almost entirely upon 
. . . private institutions; . . . however, only two offer 
fairly good courses for teachers. . . . The graduating classes 
of all the schools offering teacher- training in 191 5 numbered only 
about 100, an annual output obviously inadequate to meet the 
need of teachers in a state with over 300,000 colored people and 
1,000 colored public school-teachers. . . . 

"As yet no colored school supervisor is employed by the State 
department of education. Six counties in the State have Jeanes 
Fund supervisors traveling among the rural schools, introducing 
industrial training and extending the influence of the school into 
the community." 

The report also adds the following: 

"Summary of Educational Needs 

" 1. The strengthening and extension of the elementary school 
system. This can best be done by employing a supervisor of 
colored schools as is done in other Southern States. 

"2. The increase of teacher-training facilities. To this end 
secondary schools with teacher-training courses should be pro- 
vided, more summer schools and teachers' institutes should be 
maintained, and the private schools should co-operate with the 
State department of education by placing more emphasis on 
teacher-training courses in accordance with State standards. 

"3. More provision for instruction in gardening, household 
arts, and simple industries. In developing this work counties 
should realize the possibilities of the Jeanes Fund industrial super- 
visors. 

"4. More instruction in agriculture and in the problems of 
rural life, so that teachers and leaders may be developed for a 
people 71 per cent rural. 

"5. The maintenance of industrial high schools in cities." 

* Report on Negro Education, United States Bureau of Education, Volume 
2, p. 159. 



40 

To keep the Negro families from migrating northward one prac- 
tical movement will be in the fostering care of the schools for 
Negro youth, which are by no means adequate now. To keep the 
Negro in ignorance is to offer a premium upon vagabondage and 
crime. 

Improvement of Public Education 

The foundation of the education of the people lies in the 
public schools. The efficiency of the public schools depends upon 
the quality of the teachers, their education, special training, their 
character, their manners, and their personality. In order to have 
good teachers there must be opportunity for their proper training 
and there must be such a scale of compensation as will justify 
competent teachers to remain in the teacher's profession. 

The normal training of teachers is now being carried on by the 
State University, the State College for Women and the State 
Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, without any 
local normal schools. 

This plan has some great advantages because it ensures a high 
quality of administration and high standards of instruction. In 
order to make it successful it will be necessary to separate the 
normal department pretty sharply from the other departments of 
the University. 

There are two serious disadvantages in this plan. The first is 
the tendency on the part of the students and teachers in the regu- 
lar work of the University to look with a certain undeserved con- 
tempt upon normal work. This attitude finds its excuse that the 
standards of admission to the normal department must of neces- 
sity be lower than those for admission to the other University 
departments. 

The second difficulty and one more serious is the great distance 
of the institution from the homes of the prospective teachers. 
The burden of traveling expense is a very serious one upon the 
teachers because salaries in Florida, as we have seen, average 
only $327 per year. 

This difficulty can be met in part at least by extension work in 
teachers' institutes and we believe that the State should greatly 
increase this kind of work. We would suggest that the difficulty 
be met further by a system of correspondence instruction which 
can be carried on during the school term. 



41 

The state school fund is derived from a mill tax levy distributed 
throughout the State upon a census basis. This tax raises over 
$300,000. The counties provide by county taxation an additional 
sum, while the enterprising cities which desire full school equip- 
ment and facilities provide for municipal or district taxation to 
further supplement the school fund locally expended. 

The state school fund could be increased by leasing the re- 
claimed lands and providing additional income for school purposes 
out of the revenue thus created. 

The school fund could be the better distributed if it were con- 
ditioned upon school attendance rather than upon a census, and 
this would result in a better attendance in the schools, and thus 
do away with one of the chief deficiencies in the school system of 
the State. 

Public school management should be absolutely removed from 
the realm of partisan control. The State Board of Education 
should endeavor to establish a strong executive control of the 
management of the public schools in the office of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction to the end that a uniform 
policy may be enforced throughout the State. County super- 
intendents of schools should be appointed by the State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction to the end that the state policy 
may be locally enforced through such subordinates of a state 
system. 

At this very time when the schools of the state are asked to 
sign food conservation pledge cards, there is no recognized effort 
to secure regular attendance of children in the public schools. 
There is no attendance law that will compel parents to see that 
their children attend the schools even during a short school year, 
and there is no well established plan to provide attendance offi- 
cials to see that children do go to school. This is a serious lack 
in the school system of the State of Florida. 

The great fact as we view it is that the prevention of depen- 
dency and crime in a state largely depends upon the force of its 
educational system. A short school year with inefficient teaching 
force meagrely paid, with a yet shorter year and yet less compen- 
sation for the schools for colored children, offers a premium upon 
dependency, waywardness, delinquency, and eventually crime. 
In an agricultural state like Florida the danger of injury to child- 
hood by interference with schools, or excessive child labor, is 



42 

simple, but all the more because her problem is simple, Florida 
must protect her young children from overwork on farms and in 
canning factories, and must guard faithfully their educational 
interests. 

Higher Education 

The four State institutions of higher education are steadily 
developing along the line of higher standards and more efficient 
work. 

The State College for Women in particular is adapting itself 
to the larger needs of the young women of the State. It main- 
tains a college department, a home economics department, county 
branches of economics, and a normal department. The home 
economics department under the direction of Miss A. E. Harris 
has made notable progress. The quality of her work may be in- 
ferred from the fact that she has been given a leave of absence of 
six months at the request of the Federal Government to work in 
15 southern states along the line of food conservation and other 
war emergency work. 

The State University has the following departments : a School 
of Letters, an Agricultural School, a Law School, a Medical 
School, a School of Engineering, and a Normal School. 

The State Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes is 
a school for both sexes which has a college department and nor- 
mal, vocational, and home economics departments. It is sup- 
ported chiefly from the national treasury. In the year 1915-16 
the state appropriation was $9,000 and the federal appropriation 
$25,000. We believe that the State should increase its appro- 
priation in order to add to the efficiency of this school. 

The Florida State College for the Deaf and the Blind at St. 
Augustine is organized strictly as an educational institution. It 
has a population of about 120 deaf pupils and 30 blind pupils. 
It maintains a staff of 17 instructors and seven other employes. 

The school is developed along the lines of similar institutions 
in other states. Ultimately as the school increases in numbers 
the department for the blind should be separated from the depart- 
ment for the deaf, as the needs of these two classes of pupils are 
radically different. 

Excellent new structures have been built for the housing and 
educational instruction of the children. Having prepared suitable 



43 

physical equipment for its educational work it now becomes neces- 
sary to proceed to make the best use of this equipment and to 
strive to develop the high standards of efficiency which prevail in 
some states, as Mississippi and Ohio. 

Not all the blind and deaf children of the State are at this 
school, and there should be a special effort made to bring the chil- 
dren under instruction. The lamentable lack of a compulsory 
attendance law or other means of knowing the number of children 
not attending public school makes it necessary for the manage- 
ment here to institute some special form of inquiry to discover the 
neglected blind and deaf children of the State who need instruc- 
tion and training. 

As the State is giving special instruction to these children it 
may reasonably require a return of service from them that will 
be vocational and educational, and yet will not interfere with 
the pursuit of their regular studies, but it would seem that 
the domestic service at the school should not be put upon the 
shoulders of the pupils beyond a reasonable amount of vocational 
instruction. The funds of the school must be increased in order 
to provide more employes, and thus relieve the pupils from an 
excessive amount of domestic service which now interferes with 
this educational instruction and training. 

Care of the Poor 

The law of Florida gives the county boards sole authority to 
relieve temporary distress and give aid to families in need. The 
practice seems to be to publish the names of beneficiaries of these 
county funds as part of the proceedings of board meetings, and 
that custom should be no longer observed. In no county, so far as 
our inquiry enabled us to go, is there any almshouse or any other 
place for the permanent care of aged, crippled, and infirm depen- 
dents. Constructive work for dependent families is done by pri- 
vate agencies in Jacksonville and a few of the larger cities. There 
are, however, private homes for dependent children, but there 
is no state care or supervision. 

If the suggestion elsewhere made in this report of the introduc- 
tion of a system of state hospitals were adopted, it would be pos- 
sible to establish as an adjunct to these a corresponding system 
of homes for aged and infirm dependents who need nursing and 
permanent custodial care. These infirmaries should not provide 



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accommodations for the feeble-minded or the insane, who should 
be cared for in institutions expressly intended for them. The 
Red Cross through its local Chapters is undertaking to be respon- 
sible for the relief and aid of soldiers' families, making such pro- 
vision in addition to the appropriations of the government as may 
be necessary to secure adequate care. 

The county poor officials throughout the State should be urged 
to co-operate with the Red Cross Chapters, and to furnish them 
with all helpful information which they may have in their posses- 
sion. 

It is to be expected that the thoroughly organized and efficient 
work which is being undertaken by the Red Cross will result in 
the adoption of permanent plans and organizations which can be 
made available for the care of needy families after the war. Thus 
far no county, so far as we can learn, has established such public 
welfare agencies as are now found in the most progressive states. 
A competent social worker can do much to re-establish families 
that have become impoverished and discouraged, with the result 
of a great financial saving and at the same time a great improve- 
ment in the social conditions and the efficiency of such families. 



CONCLUSION 

Viewing the social agencies and institutions of the State as a 
whole we feel that Florida has a splendid foundation laid upon 
which to build. We counsel the State to follow the example of 
the States of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ten- 
nessee by establishing an unpaid Advisory Board of Charities or 
of Public Welfare which should have a competent paid secretary. 
Let it be absolutely divorced from political control. Let it be its 
mission to study the social development of the United States and 
to assist the Governor, the Cabinet, and the State Legislature in 
perfecting a complete, consistent, and efficient system of institu- 
tions and agencies for the State of Florida. We see no reason why 
the State of Florida should not join the States of South Carolina, 
North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee as the leaders in the 
social development of the South. 

Hastings H. Hart 
Clarence L. Stonaker 



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